


Let Me Sleep...So I Can Dream of You

by AssyPiff



Category: Peter Kay's Car Share (TV)
Genre: Co-workers, Comedy, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:27:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23982319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AssyPiff/pseuds/AssyPiff
Summary: John confides in his brother and with a little help from Forever FM. Set after the Fancy Dress party
Relationships: Kayleigh Kitson & John Redmond
Comments: 7
Kudos: 18





	Let Me Sleep...So I Can Dream of You

"You're looking tired brother, " Paul declared, joining John on the bench in their parents' garden after the weekly Sunday roast hosted by their mother Deirdre. 

"Do I?" John asked wearily, having absolutely no intention at all in confiding in his younger brother, who had for their whole lives never been able to resist taking the piss.

" You look like shit, John, would you look at yourself man! " 

John did indeed look dreadful. He had dark circles developing under his eyes, had lost his usual spark and had sat picking at his food, which had not gone unnoticed, especially by their mother. She had nodded very clearly and persistently to Paul to follow John out to the garden where he had escaped for a breather after the dessert plates had been cleared. 

"The last time you were like this was when Charlotte...she's not back is she?"

Paul was horrified at the prospect of John taking up with his ex-fiancé again after all this time. The family was to a person relieved that this episode had appeared to be water under John's relationship bridge. She was a nice enough girl but not right for John. The Redmonds had started to see the John they loved gradually return to some resemblance of his old self over the months and years since they had split up in less than ideal circumstances. He was more wary, more serious and laughed less readily but he had gradually come back to them. The change in John for the better had been more marked over the past couple of months. There was a lightness about him, a humour which had been sadly lacking, they all saw it, even Nana Rose, who had been known to mutter darkly to anyone who would listen that her John need a nice girl to cheer him up.

"Charlotte? Back? God no! That ship sailed three years ago. Why bring her up?" John had been lost in his own thoughts, oblivious to the significant looks going round the dinner table, so it was a shock when Paul had brought up the woman who couldn't be furthest from his mind. 

"Not to bullshit you John, you've been less of a miserable bastard lately and now you look as if you've got the weight of the world on your shoulders and it pains me to see it. " Paul laughed, "It pains Mum to see you like this, personally I don't give a shit, but I've been sent out here to find out what the matter is. You know I'm going to have to tell her something, so you might as well spill. "

Anyone overhearing this conversation would be forgiven for thinking that the brothers didn't get along. But this was the way of the Redmond men, they didn't do emotions, or discussing theirs with each other at least. The two brothers had always been close, but even more so since they lost their dad, six months ago just gone. This was Paul's way of expressing concern.

"This has nothing to do with Charlotte. I'm not sleeping well, keep waking up at one twenty one, every pissing morning for the last three weeks. I tell you I'm up to here with it!" John rubbed his eyes, but didn't look at Paul, just continued to look at his hands folded together on his lap.

" You've got something on your mind brother, that I do know. "

"It doesn't take Einstein to work that out our Paul."

" Is it work? I thought you were still doing alright? "

"I am, if Christmas goes ok they are putting me up for promotion." John paused, he gave a slight smile, " It's not work, well it is,..well no it isn't" 

" Are you going to make me play twenty questions or are you going to tell me? " Paul, not renowned for his patience looked at his watch.

John shook his head, "I've been having the same bloody dream every night but wake up in the same part , I never get to the end of it. It's driving me mental!" 

Paul nodded, "What's the dream about?" Now they were getting somewhere.

John just grinned at his brother, the same grin they shared after they had both hit puberty, when Paul had found a dodgy magazine in the bushes in the park when he was fourteen and had come home and stashed it behind his wardrobe, showing John a little glimpse of it before sticking behind a load of Beano comics.

"You 're a bit old for that sort of dream aren't you buddy? " Paul was highly amused as John knew he would be.

"You'd think wouldn't you?" John wiped his hand across his eyes, shaking his head .

"Is this about anyone we know? Or because you've not had your end away for so long?" Paul's interest was up several notches as the unexpected candidness from his usually tight-lipped older sibling.

" No it's no-one you know, " John admitted, regretting this as soon as he's said it.

"Why don't you just ask her out and put yourself out of your misery?"

" I can't, " John buried his head in his hands.

"Why the hell not? Tell me she's not married? Mum will go spare! She'll be serving your bollocks for next Sunday lunch if she finds you dreaming about a married woman!"

" She's not married! I work with her... " God this was hard for him to say!

"And...?" Paul still didn't get it.

" She's my Car Share Buddy. I'm her boss! I can't fraternise with me staff! It's not bloody professional is it? "

"Not with a promotion in the offing! I get ya...but you like her I can tell! Hold on, she's not the one who told you she went dogging is it?" 

Both men started laughing, "Yeah the very same!"

" I've not met her yet buddy but she sounds like a keeper to me! Bloody dogging indeed! "

John's demeanour changed as they shared a good-natured chuckle over the incident. John had shared it with most of his family as it had amused him so much. It still made him laugh at random moments he felt like he still hadn't laughed at this enough.

John stopped laughing and shook his head sadly. "I can't Paul. I can't tell her. I'm her boss. She wouldn't fancy me anyway, not with her lusting over the twenty year old super hunk trolley dolly at the store every damn day. "

Paul immediately saw how the land lay. His big brother was up to his neck big time, but was never going to say anything to this lass. He was sad for him. He was a good bloke and he deserved to be settled with a good lass. 

"I suggest you take some Nytol or move your dream on. Might put you out of your misery at least." Paul patted him on the back and left a pensive John to report back to their Mum, who was standing at the kitchen window ostensibly washing up, but really trying to lip read their conversation.

" Well our Paul? What's got into John? Did he tell you? " Deirdre did not beat around the bush.

"He's got a lot on at work Mum. He's not sleeping very well. I'd let him sort things out himself, you know what he's like."

Deirdre nodded in recognition, John was a closed book to all but a select few. He'd always been the same, there was no use mithering him to reveal what was going on. He would work it out himself and then casually mention whatever it was when he had resolved whatever the problem was. 

Paul, though, was not about to leave it there. There were times in life when you just had to intervene and this was one of them. Work policy or no work policy! His brother needed a giant push in the right direction or he would still be moping around this time next year! How to do it though? He would give it some thought.

It was Wednesday night the following week and Paul had put his plan into action. John and Kayleigh had left work later than usual, John had a last minute delivery problem to deal with.

"I could have done without that!" John announced as he had finally got into the car and driven them away from the industrial estate heading towards Bury.

Kayleigh has had Forever FM on in the car while waiting for John to appear. She didn't mind waiting for him, she had nothing to get home for but him being late would probably mean he wouldn't want to stop for a brew on the way home. She had taken to suggesting this several times a week, just to prolong their time together. John didn't seem to mind, in fact sometimes he suggested it, it had become something they did.

Tonight though John wanted to get home. After the Fancy Dress party and their near kiss, John was more disturbed than ever. Kayleigh had not mentioned it and John was beginning to think he had imagined the look in her eye, or perhaps it had become part of his dream.

The theme music for "Our Song" played on the radio, John groaned, he didn't need to hear about another loser, convinced that all the stories were made up by bored builders in vans across Greater Manchester.

"Tonight's Our Song isn't the usual, but I'm going to read it out and see what you think," the DJ announced.

Kayleigh glanced at John, she loved Our Song and wished they could have one of their own one day. He had his eyes resolutely on the road ahead of him, he seemed preoccupied with his own thoughts and not really listening.

"For the past couple of months I have not been sleeping well," the DJ continued.

" Effing tell me about it, " John muttered.

"Shh," Kayleigh sighed she didn't want John to interrupt the story, there was something interesting about this already.

" I have been waking up the same time every night, have the same dream night after night but it always stops in the same place, it's driving me mental... "

John shifted uncomfortably in his seat, this was starting to sound all too familiar, but it couldn't be could it? " he stole a quick glance at Kayleigh, she was looking straight ahead totally absorbed in the unfolding story, seemingly not making the connection just yet.

"I never get to finish the dream..."

" Poor man, must be so frustrating, " Kayleigh was sympathetic and nodding along to the narration.

"The thing is I am head over heels in love with a woman I work with but can never tell her. It's against our company policy and I'm her boss. She would never go for someone like me so I dream about her every night and wake up at the point I am going to kiss her. At one twenty one."

John's dawning horror was now complete. He knew he shouldn't have confided in his bastard brother and now his business was out there for all the world to hear. At least to all the listeners of the North-West's fourth biggest radio station. John couldn't give a toss about them though, it was the woman in his car he cared about. He was mortified, sinking lower in his seat and red in the face, John glanced carefully in her direction to try to gauge her reaction. She could be remarkably slow on the uptake sometimes, so maybe she wouldn't put the pieces together. It was a forlorn hope but it was all he had.

Kayleigh had been listening intently to the radio, "I feel sorry for him John, don't you?"

" Spineless prick if you ask me, " John's self-loathing was clear to see.

"No John! Not at all. He's in love with her but can't tell her. It's torturing him that he sees her every day and can't say anything. So he dreams about her night after night, so romantic," she sighed and smiled to herself.

" Not so much romantic as exhausting...I would imagine, " John added quickly, fearful of giving himself away.

"Would you play "Our Song" or at least my song, " Sleep" by Texas, " the DJ intoned, "I certainly will buddy, and hey if you do tell her, I'm sure we all want to know what happens. Write in and tell us."

The song started to play to the silent occupants of the red Fiat, both separately remembering how much they had liked Texas back in the day.

" She was gorgeous, wasn't she that Sharleen? I loved Texas, you don't hear of them much now do you? "

"Aye she was. I had their album Southside on cassette in me first car," John offered hoping that he had got away with it.

Kayleigh gave him a long sideways look, "I think you had better pull over John," she said gently.

" That's it, I'm busted!, " he thought doing as he was told, like a man walking slowly towards the gallows, pulling the car over to the side of a wide residential street.

They sat in silence until Kayleigh broke the ice by taking hold of John's hand and covering it with her own. "How do you think that man could break his dream?" Kayleigh asked almost whispering.

" I dunno, " John replied, his voice cracking with emotion.

"Do you think it would help if the woman he was in love with told him she loved him too?"

John had been resolutely looking out of his side window, getting redder in the face, beads of sweat forming on his top lip. His mind was racing trying to come up with ways to extricate himself from this situation and ways he could kill his brother , painfully and slowly. It took him a while to process what she just said.

"Eh? "

"I said, do you think it would help if the woman told him she loved him too?" She looked at him with a beautiful smile , her eyes brimming with unshed tears.

A smile began to travel across John 's face of it's own accord, "it might..." he whispered.

" Might? "

" It definitely would... "

"I love you John..."

" I love you too Kayleigh, " he leaned across to kiss her, this time nothing and no-one interrupting them.

Sharing a smile which promised the world, John drove on to the strains of...

"Let me sleep so I can dream of you...

Let me sleep so I can be with you..." *

(Sleep by Texas, songwriters Guy Chambers/Kellis Rogers ©BMG Rights Management

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by Peter's music video of Sleep with Texas we watched as a watchalong of Peter Kay's Comedy Shuffle. Jemma, Ellie, Laura, Susan & Victoria...watching along with you makes it so much more fun...thank u ,  
> ❤


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